A HISTORY OF DORSET 



English raided each other's coasts, and each made captures at sea. War was 

 considered so certain in 1401 that in January not only the ports but many ot 

 the inland towns were ordered, singly or in combination, to build and equip 

 ships at their own cost by the following April "*- ; Weymouth was grouped 

 with Seaton and Sidmouth for a balinger between them, Lyme with Exmouth 

 for one barge, and Poole, Wareham, and Melcombe together for another. It 

 is difficult to say which town takes the lead as being considered the wealthiest 

 in the county, but Melcombe is shown to have fallen from its former place. 

 Parliament met on 23 January and protested against this call upon the 

 country. Henry's position was too uncertain to permit him to insist, as he 

 might have done, on the strict legality of his action, therefore he was com- 

 pelled to content himself with a general arrest of shipping, in May, of the 

 usual type, by which the same ports were affected.*^' English merchants 

 were reckoning up French spoliations to the amount of ^100,000, done 

 under cover of the Scotch war, and the French chroniclers were recording 

 the ravaging of their coasts by whole fleets of English pirates. The famous 

 Henry Pay, of Poole, appears in 1402 as charged with piracy in company 

 with other sailors belonging to towns of the south coast. *^ By 1404 the 

 political vane had veered and Pay was then empowered to fit out privateers, 

 perhaps because the French had fallen upon Portland in the spring and swept 

 it with fire and sword. They did not, however, escape scathless ; probably 

 their strength was very small, and when the inhabitants, reinforced from the 

 main land, attacked them many were killed or taken prisoners.*'' In 1405 

 an English fleet burnt 40 Norman towns and villages, and the French took 

 some small revenge along the south coast. It had been intended that three 

 galleys and 40 ships belonging to Castile should have joined a French 

 squadron ; but in the result only the three Spanish and two French galleys, 

 under Don Pedro Nino and Charles de Savoisi, sailed in August. After 

 operations in Cornwall and Devon they made Portland, where they met 

 with little resistance. ''*' Then the writer of La Victoria! digresses at length 

 on the misdeeds of Henry Pay (' Arripay '), and as they were under the 

 impression that Poole belonged to him it was no wonder that the com- 

 manders seized the opportunity to pay some old debts. They went into the 

 harbour one morning towards the end of September and found the town 

 unfortified but looking defensible and populous — so much so that Savoisi, 

 whose feelings were perhaps less embittered, refused to allow his men to 

 land. The Spaniards went ashore, and there was a sharp fight ; their object 

 being revenge they tried to fire the place rather than to plunder it, and they 

 did burn some buildings, including a large storehouse full of naval stores. 

 Eventually the Spaniards were so hard pressed that the French had to come 

 to their assistance ; and although the Spanish writer says that the English 

 were forced to give way it seems more likely, as the town was not burnt, 

 that the French only succeeded in bringing ofF their allies. One of Henry 

 Pay's brothers was killed in the defence. The redoubtable Pay was himself 

 at sea in 1407, and took a fleet of 120 French merchantmen, but it is 

 uncertain whether he had any Dorset ships with him. 



" Rymer, Foedera, viii, 172. 



*»^ Pat. 2 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 16. '' Close, 4 Hen. IV, m. 30. 



'^' '9^j-aitx,Focdira, viii, 356. The ' Raase' of Portland is noticed in 1408 (Roll of For. Accts. 10 Hen. W, 

 m. A.) *"" La Vktorial {^A. Circourt et Puigaigre), Paris, 1867. 



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